I always loved walking through there during Xmas time. Do they still have the trains?

Lovely picture that is a reminder to brace myself for the scent of "pine & pee" when heading to the train.

Do you mean Amtrak & Metro? If so, absolutely. If you mean a miniature model set, I've never seen one.

I refuse to acknowledge Christmas’s invasion and colonization of November.

You mean occupied late October?? /s

They used to have model trains there in the SW corner of the station. No idea when they stopped, I haven't been in there regularly since middle school.

Let thanksgiving happen. There should be a massive turkey out there

Kind of an ironic ad from the directory

Fuck Christmas until Dec 20th.

They had the model trains up through the mid-2010s at least! I remember seeing them when I was still using Amtrak to visit family over the holidays.

Not Quite Almost Christmas Time

No one should make you feel small

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Thanksgiving is the most boring holiday, I see november as xmas prep month :)

I'll have to stop by

It's so beautiful, I used to work in the Center Cafe, the big round mahogany restaurant, right in the middle of the train station..I don't even know if it's still there. Now that my parents have passed... I don't come home anymore..but I l loved working there. At Christmas, they used to have toy train sets, set up... and on my break, I would walk around and look at them. Each one was like its own little world and the craft that the artists put into them, was amazing. This time of year is so magical.... I miss coming home for Christmas😞🪄🎩🎄☃️

Thanksgiving is superior to Christmas in every way imaginable and I won’t abide its erasure!

Agreed 💯

What makes it Norwegian? Norwegian pine, I guess?

It might be a Norwegian pine but it's an evergreen tree from Norway that is a gift to DC that they send every year.

Yes, for real

Its put up by the Norwegian Embassy as a thank you for WWII (they also do one for the UK I believe) It's been a fake tree with a different theme for as long as I can remember.

It's a gift from Norway to celebrate Norwegian-US Relations.

Fun Fact: The current King of Norway, Harald V, spent the first five years of his life in Washington, D.C. with his mother and sisters while Norway was occupied by Nazi Germany during WWII. He speaks English with a slight American accent as a result.

Center Cafe is long gone, that whole hall is just empty space now. :(

So pretty ♥️

The miniatures. I know Metro and Amtrak still go through there.

The War on Christmas will end when Christmas respects the sovereignty of the autumn holidays and retreats across the Thanksgiving armistice line.

Looks beautiful. Maybe it'll get the whiny suburbanites to quit complaining about the place for five seconds.

I remember the model train in 2019.

username checks out

I celebrate Christmas I just don’t like extended holiday seasons, it’s over commercialized and a mess. Not even sure why holiday talk is a thing before Thanksgiving

I'd like an answer to this as well. They didn't have it in 2020 or 2021 IIRC

Christmas started taking over Halloween sections before the end of October this year. I've seen restaurants with trees up already too.

If you're missing trains, the Botanic Gardens have a free Train exhibit every year. It's also free.

Thanks! I could probably make it over there after Thanksgiving.

But do you get presents and countless movies for Thanksgiving???

The absence of presents and terrible movies is precisely why it’s superior.

😍😍😍😍😍😍

It won't open until after thanksgiving, but it's pretty neat. There are no reservations like there are at Zoolights, so a line is likely to be there.

Its all the family fights, boring food, horrible travel conditions and none of the lights or presents. Thanksgiving can suck it.

Christmas has all the fights. And the same food. Worse travel conditions. And you also have to spend half your life savings buying presents for people. Not to mention being obligated to go to a dozen stupid holiday parties you don’t want to go but have to. And there’s having to listen to the same six stupid Christmas songs ad nauseam.

Thanksgiving is just a single day, with better weather, hanging out with the people you love, eating your face off, then drinking beer and watching football. THEN you get the rest of a 4-day weekend to yourself. And you’re done in a single day as opposed to having to deal with it for a month and a half. Thanksgiving rules.

That tree does

I never considered myself a whiny suburbanite before? Union Station has gone downhill massively from its glory days. I don’t even see how that’s up for debate?

By the way, I got a press release email about the tree lighting ceremony:

Norwegian Christmas Tree Lighting DATE: Monday, November 28, 5PM LOCATION: Union Station, Washington DC TICKETS: FREE One of Washington’s most popular holiday traditions, the annual Norwegian Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony, which began in 1997, kicks off the Christmas season with festive music, special guests, and of course, the lighting of the magnificent Norwegian Christmas Tree. This year’s performance line-up includes: tenThing, Wicked Sycamore, Rayshun Lamarr, and East of the River Steelband.

No Yuletide celebration without ample turkey representation?

Ha at first I thought this was a joke about how empty Union Station has become.

The proper DC response. Hats off to you.

> But do you get presents

Once you're not a kid anymore presents suck though. I'm an adult with a job, anything I want I'll just buy myself. Nobody is going to be as good at giving me presents as myself, and then I have to give them a present of reasonably equal value in return so basically you're spending money to get stuff you didn't actually want.

Thats true...which is why i always gift myself something i want! That way im guaranteed to get at least 1 thing i actually like

MARC and VRE too!

That's a shame it was a beautiful restaurant and I made really good money there, well I was going to AU. I met a lot of very interesting people.It was actually my first real job.. I had been a hostess and shucked crabs and worked at my dad's KB theaters...when I was a teenager but that was my first real full-time job. The staff would take the train up to New York and party after the Friday night shift and then be back to work for the next dinner shift, in the same clothes, it was crazy. I spilled an entire bowl of soup down my grandmother's back because I was so nervous serving my family and I dropped a jeroboam of $1500 champagne on New Year's Eve because I had never opened champagne before... and I think the bartender was messing with me because I begged him to do it for me at the table ... but he told me that I had to learn how to do it myself. So I close my eyes and pulled on the cork and bam slid right out of my hand..the 2 customers from Saudi Arabia thought it was hilarious and ordered another one and end up tipping me enough money to cover the bottle which I was responsible for and another 1500 for me. I had a woman stab her husband in the hand at one of my tables...snd I won the super bowl pool and I know nothing about football everybody was pissed ...that was the best first job ever. That's a shame it's not still there but I don't really come home anymore.